Dawn of the New Night
by TheMaster4444
Summary: Buffy S6, When Buffy died, Dawn was broken. Despite her friends' efforts, she spirals away. Until she tries stealing from a man named Kylar Stern, who proposes an alternative outlet for her grief. But as he trains Dawn in the arts of the Night Angel, Willow resurrects Buffy. What will Dawn do with her sister alive again? And why does Kylar truly care about the fate of these women?
1. Chapter 1

Dawn of the New Night

Chapter 1

One Week after Buffy's Death

Normally, summer was a wonderful time. School was out, the sun was shining bright, and the beach was only a few hours away from Sunnydale, California. But for a fifteen year girl walking down the street, the sun shines for nothing and no one. For Dawn Summers had lost both her mother and her sister in the space of a few months.

Sure, no one outside the Scooby Gang knew Buffy was dead. The Buffybot ensured that. But Dawn knew that her slayer sister was gone and despite everything that everyone was trying to do for her, even Spike, she had nothing.

So she had started taking things. Nothing big, just some lipstick here, a necklace there. She always justified the act to herself with some ridiculous reason, most of which she knew weren't valid. But there was a hole in her heart that needed to be filled and when she had that moment of claiming an object, the pain lessened just a tiny bit. But enough to allow her to stand.

Normally, she would steal from Giles' store, The Magic Box. But with all the items she had taken recently and Anya's keen recording eye, she didn't want to take any chances. So Dawn found herself walking up to a new arcane store (which Anya constantly begged Giles to let her hex) called Old Aalyep's. Nobody understood the name and despite numerous hours that the gang had poured into research in case the shop was demonic, Glies' books revealed nothing.

With confidence that there was no real danger, Dawn entered the store. The layout was an exact copy of the Magic Box but most of the selves were stocked with plants and herbs of various shades instead of mystical tomes and crystal balls that were preferred by Giles and Anya. The door at the rear of the building which in the Magic Box lead to Buffy's old training room, was held closed by an extremely secure looking lock.

When Dawn looked at the woman behind the counter conversing with various customers, her confidence rose. The woman was stout, stronger looking than Willow or Tara, but very inattentive of anything that wasn't in front of her. So while the saleswoman was engrossed in her discussion with a particularly stubborn bargainer, Dawn nipped some sage from a basket, careful to make the motion look natural and unremarkable.

Quickly exiting the establishment, the young woman took the time to observe her newest catch. The stem was a faint green and the buds a soft violet. The plant almost screamed innocence which nearly galvanized Dawn to crush the item beneath her fingers and palm. She knew there was no innocence in the world because the world did not care about innocence. And any fool who went on believing that there was something or someone in this world that wouldn't kill you for being in the wrong place at the wrong time or for reasons completely outside their own control was a corpse waiting to fall.

But the late slayer's sister still had a soul and therefore a conscience. And at that moment it was desperately trying to persuade the girl to do the right thing. But Dawn Summers wanted nothing of reason or right. _Tara and Willow might need it for a spell, _she argued with herself. She knew such a notion was a lie as the witch lovers had massive stockpiles of the herb.

She was about to return home when a stiff force wrapped around her mouth, cutting off most oxygen. Dawn knew that there must have a hand restraining her but her eyes showed nothing. And soon they gave way to blackness.

When Dawn's eyes opened once again, she could see little more than when she was unconscious. The young woman was able to confirm that she had her hands and legs bound tight behind an old fashion wooden chair she presently sat in. But other than the absence of her stolen sage, darkness obscured the remainder of her vision.

Slow clapping began resonating around the room from only a few feet in front of Dawn. "Impressive little girl, few can steal from under Miri's gaze, despite her appearance to the contrary." Suddenly, a dark humanoid figure materialized from the shadows, with eyes of blue flame and a soft blaze emitting itself from the creature's mouth. "But to take from me is suicide in itself" the creature warned.

Dawn's breathe left at the sight of the beast of darkness. She had faced down vampires, demons, and even a hell goddess but this being was an avatar of fear. "What are you?" she managed to croak out.

"Human" the being responded, its fiery mask rescinding from his face to reveal the smooth face of a young man with black hair. "Though many mistake me for something other than that."

Dawn did not take the man's species as any assurance that he meant her no harm. She had encountered a variety of humans, dark sorcerers or petty thieves, who could give a demon a run for its money in cruelty. "Alright then" she continued, slightly stronger. "Who are you? Old Aalyep?"

The man seemed to chuckle at that question. Apparently, it was fairly common in his life. "Aalyep was old acquaintance whose corpse had long been ashes. As for the original question, I have had more names than I can remember. You may address me by the truest, Kylar."

Dawn gulped down her fear. She had name which, while it did not reduce the amount of danger she was in, did allow her to make the threat feel solid and fightable. "Alright Kylar, what do you want from me?"

The man almost grinned at the inquiry, like it was an inside joke between him and a choir of those long dead. "Other than the sage you took from my store Dawn Summers," the girl's heart accelerated when he revealed her name, "I want to save you from spiraling to your doom and help you to honor your sister's sacrifice."

"How do you know about Buffy?" Dawn asked, panicked.

"Other than the tombstone lying in that meadow your friends have so carefully hidden, I am skilled at investigation" Kylar explained. "And in my line of work, it pays to know who the current and past slayers are. I observed your sister in her early career to make sure I would be able to leave the Hellmouth in her care. When I saw she could handle herself, I left to protect the world from threats outside of Sunnydale. But enough discussion of the past, I'm here to teach you the art of being a wetboy and the way of the shadows."

"That sounds evil" Dawn replied cheekily.

"You would be surprised how many world saving things do?"

**Not sure if anyone will actually see this, the category is new after all, but still I hope you read on and REVIEW!**


	2. Chapter 2

Dawn of the New Night

Chapter 2

The Night before the Resurrection of Buffy

Dawn focused on the darkness surrounding her. Buffy, Willow, and the rest of the Scooby Gang had long warned her to beware the night and the demons it hid. But under Master Kylar's training, she had come to see that shadows were merely allies to those who knew their value. And one of the many keys to being a wetboy was to meld with that that regular people feared and become its personification, thereby becoming the very essence of fear. Also, when using the talent, Dawn could call the darkness around her to camouflage herself. Of course, Dawn could never do it well enough to fool Master Kylar. Darkness could hide no secrets from him.

But despite his constant criticism, Dawn was grateful for what he was doing for her. Wetboy training gave her a new focus for her life and did not give her time to let kleptomania set back in. She got up, went to school, and then dashed down to Old Aalyep's to continue her newest tutelage. Miri the clerk had learned to recognize her on sight and quickly ushered her into the back room whenever she arrived. She immediately got dressed into her grays (a tight fitting molted black and gray combat garment that hid in darkness better that pure black) and began the warm up sparring with Kylar. They then began to work on excessive weapons training with everything from swords to throwing knives to punch daggers. After that, they moved on to the part that Dawn most looked forward to, Talent training.

Kylar used Talent for what Willow and Tara called magic. The way Dawn learned was that, normally, to be proficient enough in the use of Talent to be called a witch (or as Kylar said mage) you needed three things. One, you needed a _glore vyrden, _a deposit of magic gleamed the excess power of one's soul. Two, you needed a conduit or a channel that translated the power from your _glore vyrden _into action. Third, under normal circumstances at least, a magic user would have to be able to refill their _glore vyrden _with energy from natural occurrences, such as fire or sunlight.

What made Dawn unique, was due to her essence being the Key, a mystical giant orb of energy that could tear down dimensional walls, her _glore vyrden _possessed a quite literal limitless supply of Talent, eliminating the need for her to recharge at all. The problem with such unimaginable power was that while her conduit was huge, it had been damaged during Glory's ritual the night that Buffy died. Now, if Dawn channeled too much power at once, her conduit would burst and leave her not only unable to perform magic, but the subsequent overflow could rip her body apart. Even testing the pipe's structural limits with a burst that was close to lethal would leave Dawn exhausted and on the edge of consciousness. So Kylar decided against teaching her kinetic blasts and fireballs, instead favoring the more Talent efficient and traditional outlets of a wetboy such as shadow stealth and physical enhancement.

Dawn remained still, awaiting the strike she knew would come, watching for faint movements in the shadows to tell her when. Suddenly a bend formed in the darkness, alerting the Key to the fist about to come down on her stomach. Utilizing a small quantity of Talent to accelerate her movement, Dawn parried the blow within a hair's breadth of her abdomen. But her assailant was a master and used her own force to power a precision strike to her elbow, forcing her left arm to unbend and leaving her open to a follow up attack that smacked into a pressure point at the base of her jaw that disabled her powers for a second. Which in real combat would have been enough to make her a corpse. Dawn could only look down at her feet in disappointment as Kylar turned the training room's lights back on and returned his body to full visibility.

Dawn knew a lecture was coming. Kylar always gave her a special talk after a sparring match that diagnosed what she did wrong and was usually accompanied by some mentoring phrase or saying that he was probably told a thousand times by his master. Instead, he asked, "What's wrong Dawn. You have mastered in three months what took me ten years to learn. It should have taken me at least two more series of strikes to beat. You're off and I can't help you if you don't tell why."

Dawn hadn't told anyone what had happened earlier that day. Granted, that was mostly because she had been there training with Kylar practically since school let out. But even if she had had the opportunity, she doubted that she would have talked to any of the Scoobies, except Spike. She would defiantly have talked to Spike. But Kylar never judged her even when she came to him with little things that a master wetboy shouldn't have cared about. All he did was listen and when she was done, he advised her as best he could.

She took a breath, wondering if her stoic teacher would laugh at her situation. "Today was Parent Day at school."

"I know I never went to school but that does not sound especially horrible."

"It wasn't the event" Dawn explained. "It was the Buffybot." With her sister and mother both dead but Dawn still wishing to remain in Sunnydale, Willow had reactivated an exact robot replica of Buffy to provide an illusion to the supernatural underworld that the Slayer was still alive and kicking, as well as preventing the Summers sisters' father from taking Dawn away. However, though the robot's physical exterior was identical to Dawn's late sister, her personality couldn't be more so. "She was the perfect student and all the teachers loved her. But it was just so infuriating to hear them call her Buffy. Like an open wound that keeps being torn into a bigger and bigger gap."

She realized that she had begun to rant at her teacher. "I guess I should stop complaining. I mean, Buffy did warn me that it would be hard. _The hardest thing in this world is to live in it._" She quoted her dead sister's final words.

Strangely, Kylar took her shoulder in a way a caring father would. "Wise words for one so young." He paused for a moment considering his next words. "Dawn" he continued. "There was a famous saying among wetboys in earlier times. _Life is empty. Life is meaningless. When we take a life, we take nothing of value. _It was used to help ease beginners into their first kill."

"That doesn't make me feel any better" Dawn responded depressingly.

"Because it is only half true" Kylar explained. "Life is only empty if we _allow _it to be empty. We have to work for what we get, even things that should come as rightfully as family. There are no gods in the sky that will save us."

"That is why we don't pray" Dawn recalled. "That doesn't help much either."

"Because humans need to pray Dawn" Kylar pressed. "They need to hope for a better and brighter world to live in or else they will never do so in the one they reside in already. But prayers are not answered often because they are often made by those who will not work for that future. So if you must pray, do so to a deity called _Nysos, _lord of fluids. Most specifically, wine, blood, and semen."

"Semen?"

"Right you're still a virgin, forget that part" Kylar covered quickly, though Dawn's teenage mind was already attempting to put two and two together. "Anyway, the night is getting dark and you should get home before Willow and Tara send a search party after you." The last thing Kylar needed was a pack of well meaning fools banging down his door looking for his student.

Dawn did not want to go. The realm of brutal training had provided a surprising comfort in her darkest time. But Kylar had made himself clear and one of the few things Dawn was not allowed to argue about was when she had to go. So she dressed herself back into street cloths, grabbed her books (one of the downsides of the wetboy gig, there was very little time for finishing homework) and made ready for the remainder of the likely uneventful night.

Of course, that was the night that Willow, Xander, Tara, and Anya brought Buffy back from the dead.

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**I know there are some of you reading, so REVIEW if you want the story to continue.**


	3. Chapter 3

Dawn of the New Night

Chapter 3

The Night after Buffy's Revival

Kylar didn't need Dawn to show up later as he knew she would to inform him of Buffy's return. Willow's ritual sent off waves of Talent more powerful than anything he had felt since Black Barrow all those millions of years ago. Ha, he really was an old man. Nearly eight million years on this planet and he was still in the same line of work.

Not that he had not tried. He had attempted to live a few lives as a herbalist, a farmer, a noble, even a business king of the modern age. But no matter what, he always came back to his wetboy roots. And he killed again and again. Of course there were very few people (or demons) in the world who could afford his services, with only The Wolf, his one constant friend who wasn't a nearly invincible magical artifact that was attached to him day and night ("_I heard that") _was one of the few who could call him in for a favor. The mystical being still needed someone eliminated from his own law firm from time to time. And he preferred to do so without interference from the other Senior Partners.

But reminiscing would not prepare the training room for Dawn's arrival. So Kylar went about setting up the necessary ingredients for the lesson he was going to give his pupil that day. He had decided that the time had come for Dawn to learn the more intricate side of the way of the shadows, the concoction and identification of poisons. He had placed a black crate in the center of the floor with a huge sign painted on the side that said "Seriously, if you open this, you will die." Kylar knew that standard warning labels just enticed the foolish to disregard advice against danger. And even if the one who opened the box was foolish, Kylar did not want the creature inside the crate to escape. It was far too valuable to him and too dangerous in the hands of any other.

Besides, what the beast guarded was too potentially apocalyptic to lose. Yet, the object itself held something too sacred to Azoth for him to destroy to artifact

Meanwhile, Dawn was walking with a strangely heavy heart. After all, her sister had just been miraculously brought back from the dead. Sure, there had been the small matter of that demon that had terrorized them afterwards but everything turned out fine. But now that Buffy was back, Dawn realized that she could not keep training with Kylar, no matter how much purpose the work gave to her life.

As the former key glumly trotted into Old Aalyep's, Miri perked her head up from behind the counter. The seemingly innocent clerk had known The Night Angel for the majority of the last few decades (magic was a girl's best friend when it came to starving off the signs of time) and felt that his sudden interest in this teenage girl was a good thing. It gave the often subdued wetboy an alternative outlet compared to his usual brooding about events that took place millions of years ago (how the man lived for so long as a human and still retained his soul was one of the few secrets that still eluded Miri). Besides, a young woman who lived on a hellmouth should know how to defend herself and maybe Kylar would eventually have her assist him in taking down the various evils of the pit.

But as she began to say, "He is waiting for you", Miri realized that the developing shining woman in front of her was not there to train. She had come to say goodbye.

And when Dawn entered the training room, Kylar sat on the black crate, his wetboy grays on his body but his weapons left to the side. He didn't speak, he just looked at her. Her light blue t-shirt was scrunched together, worried. Her right arm, covered by a silver bracelet that she had once told him had been her mother's, was tentatively scratching her long brown hair. Kylar had enough experience with people to know that she was terrified of telling him what she was about to. He didn't know why people were so scared of him when he wasn't trying to frighten them, he wasn't Durzo after all. "Spit it out" he ordered, worried that she might stand there forever if he didn't insist otherwise.

Dawn snapped back to herself. "Well, I just wanted to tell you that I won't be coming anymore. I appreciate everything you've done for me but something has changed at home and I'm not sure I can keep up with school and training and" –

"You're sister being back" Kylar interrupted blatantly.

Dawn stumbled in her rant. "And for the record" Kylar continued. "It is okay, I understand what it's like to be worried about what is going to be on your plate. Unless you tell anyone about my identity and true profession, I'm not going to kill you for leaving."

"Oh" Dawn said, obviously surprised. "Then everything is great."

"Yep."

"Well then, um, bye" Dawn finished as she dashed out of the room and in continuation, the store. She didn't even register the veiled threat until she arrived at the Magic Box.

Miri walked into the training room a few minutes later to the sight of Kylar slashing a wooden sword dummy to pieces with a pair of black short swords. "You okay?" she asked her boss, knowing he would never admit that he wasn't.

True to form, Kylar shrugged off his obvious fury. "I'm fine, but bring me the list of the higher up demons here. I need to blow off some steam."

Miri nodded and prepared to leave, but stopped as a thought appeared in her mind. "If Buffy is alive again, I know she is still a slayer, but is she still, you know, the other thing?"

"Yes" Kylar simply stated. "But whether it is a burden she can still bare is another thing entirely." He stopped for a moment to consider something else. "Miri, can you also get me the name of the witch that brought her back. Someone with that kind of power could be a threat if they lose control."

"There were two actually" Miri responded, having anticipated the question hours ago. "The primary enactor of the ritual was one Willow Rosenberg. She will likely be the main problem if there is one."

"Good work" Kylar complimented. "I'll watch her for awhile, see if she is any threat to the world and all that. Who was the other witch involved?"

Miri smiled. "Someone you already quite well know. A woman by the name of Tara Maclay."

**Let the plot guessing begin. REVIEW! **


	4. Chapter 4

Dawn of the New Night

Chapter 4

Same Time as _Life Serial_

Buffy didn't feel like the day could get any worse. Or weirder for that matter.

First, she had attempted to return to collage with Willow and Tara. Even before she was slapped upside the head by some mystical time freeze that froze her in place while everyone around went about their lives for hours but to her seemed like seconds, things were not looking bright for her return to education. Everyone in Willow's class who had answered a question might as well have been speaking Latin because Buffy hadn't understood a word.

Next, she had seen what life was like for the workforce when Xander landed her a spot on his construction crew. Lifting the I-beams had been practically effortless with her Slayer strength backing her up but the rest of the workers had not taken to her constant chatter and accelerated pace. Of course a gang of demon chose then to attack her and even though she managed to kill them, she got fired anyway.

Then, Giles had offered her a job at the Magic Box (Anya made a not so subtle attempt to hide her fear of replacement). At first, the job was going well despite Buffy's extreme case of boredom. But then she had gone downstairs to retrieve a mummy hand for a customer and for some reason a time loop started where she kept doing the exact same things over and over. Only when she had told the customer that the hand would have to be ordered in from a supplier did things return to normal. Of course at that point, the Slayer was so exasperated that she just walked out of the store.

Finally, she had gone to Spike. Buffy found that she was turning to Spike more often than anyone else in her life when she had some grief to discuss about her newly retuned vitality. It was the vampire who had for an exceptionally long time desired to kill her that she told that Willow, Xander, Tara, and Anya's ritual had ripped her out of heaven, not hell as they had assumed.

Spike tried his best to comfort her with whiskey and words, and decided to give her a feel of the demon nightlife, hoping the more familiar environment would reawaken some of her fire (it was very disappointing to know that the world of demons and dark magic felt more compatible to her than the normal life of a human). Somehow, his translation of demon nightlife was sitting in the back room of a bar playing poker using kittens as currency. But he swore that the demons talked while they played so, hoping to uncover some information about the strange events that were occurring in my life recently, I slumped down in a chair in the corner with a bottle of booze and began to listen to the table talk.

Most of the discussion was empty and useless but one sequence did intrigue me slightly. A demon with skin that was hanging off his body like a curtain named Clem brought up the topic. "So, have you guys heard the rumors?"

"Which ones?" asked a purple horned demon as he pulled a card from the deck. "The free Moden scarabs on Fourth or the shortage of virgin's blood at that depository in Virginia?"

"The wetboy" Clem responded ominously.

Spike immediately broke out into a chuckle. "A wetboy, seriously? Clem, everybody knows that their teachings died out millennia ago after the last one was killed doing his final job."

Buffy was aroused by a figure that Spike found ridiculous. "What's a wetboy?" she inquired.

The purple demon was the one who answered her. "The wetboys were magically trained killers who could kill anyone. Once they accepted a contract, the rest of the being they were after's existence was merely a formality. An old saying even says, _assassins have targets, wetboys have deaders _because their success rate was so high. Think of them as witches who will kill you poison and a sword rather than a curse or fireball. Though I have to agree with the vampire, their sect is long dead."

"Come on, you don't really think that a trade that specialized in stealth would just shout that it still existed" Clem argued. "You guys have to at least acknowledge that Teeth is gearing up for war on Rack and vice versa. Apparently the loan shark wants a piece of the dark magic high action. Both of them would be able to afford a wetboy and the whispers say that the one in town is especially good. A few are even claiming that he's the Night Angel."

"Good grief, how gullible are you?" mocked the remaining creature at the table.

"How is that unusual?" Buffy asked, completely drunk at this point. "Angel can only move around at night, he is a vampire."

"Not the pounce, love" Spike explained. "The Night Angel is a myth nearly as old as the Old Ones, a boogeyman to scare the demons who think that they're too omnipotent for slayers to touch. He is the avatar of retribution, who lost sight of what he stood for after a while so he had children whom three of which would personify his faces of vengeance, justice, and mercy. When one face died he would train a new one, though he would never sleep with someone he didn't love. Bugger that legend! If these faces did exist, they would be bragging about their daddy so they could bully whoever they wanted too"

"The faces are supposed to be wise Spike, they would know that The Night Angel would not fight their battles for them" Clem insisted. "Besides, they are supposed to demonstrate to their father why he should use their representation. That means that Vengeance is well, vengeful; Justice is true and righteous, and Mercy is, well you get the idea."

"I also get that I win" Spike declared as he showed his winning hand. "Cough up the furballs."

Buffy realized she was wrong, the day may not have gotten worse (she wasn't actually sure whether or not it had) but it had without a doubt gotten weirder.

**This chapter was meant to show what the common demons knew of Kylar and set a few details specific to this story.**

**As always, REVIEW!**


	5. Chapter 5

Dawn of the New Night

Chapter 5

Same Time as _All the Way_

Tara had thought that the world was finally giving the Scooby Gang a break. After all, they had saved Buffy from whatever torture she was suffering in an untamed hell dimension when they brought her back to life, no big bad was crawling out of the woodworks, and the newest surprise, Xander and Anya were engaged. Everything appeared to the best it had been since the defeat of Adam.

Of course that was when she realized that the universe still had it in for her gang of friends. But the avenues of assault had become far more subtle. Unfortunately Willow seemed to be one of said routes.

Tara began to notice the issue when they were at the Summers' house on Halloween, beginning to celebrate Xander and Anya's upcoming marriage. She had just joked that the rest of the gang would have time to decorate for the couple's next prenuptial gathering. Then her beloved Willow had said "Why wait?" and uttered an incantation. Magic sparkled through the air leaving in its wake a trail of lanterns, streamers, and other assorted party decorations. Anya had been elated and quickly embraced Tara's lover. But the older witch was unsettled at the apparent carelessness that Willow had resorted to magic.

She had tried to bring up the matter later in a discussion in the kitchen but Willow was highly defensive on the subject. Tara had asked why she had conjured the decorations when they could have simply bought some from the grocery store. Willow countered with several valid but stretched points. Tara continued to attempt to stress to the less practiced witch that she was using magic for petty reasons when she should hold far more responsibility with her incredible power. But no matter what she tried Willow refused to accept that she shouldn't use mystical forces to make her life easier at every turn. The conversation began to sour and may have deteriorated into an argument had Dawn not stepped in at that moment and awkwardly interrupted the discussion. Willow exited with the teenager and Tara hoped that maybe the hiccup had been averted.

However, that night, Dawn and a friend decided to pull an old classic out of the hat and tell each other's guardians that they were staying over at the other's place and went out to do who knows what. Giles received a call from the friend's mother and caught on to the charade. Xander and Anya were assigned to stay at the house in case the mother called back and sent the pair of witches to search down town while he went to Spike's crypt to try to catch Buffy, who had left on patrol about an hour earlier.

Willow suggested that they search at the Bronze and the two set out. When arrived, the club was midway through a massive Halloween bash. There were hundreds of people dancing wildly to the rock music of the band and it was impossible to tell if Dawn was there or not.

"Maybe we could ask security?" Tara suggested.

"That would take too long" Willow protested. She then leaned over the railing of the high rise and began to chant. However, Tara grabbed and turned her about face.

"What are you doing?" she inquired.

"I'm just going to clear the crowd" her partner explained.

"How?"

"I'll just shift everyone who isn't a fifteen year old girl into an alternate dimension" Willow answered as if she had said that she was going to watch TV.

"What?!" Tara exclaimed.

"It will be fine" Willow insisted. "It will only be for a fraction of a second, they won't even notice."

"No, Will, you can't" Tara protested.

"Why not?" Willow whined.

"What if something went wrong?" the more responsible witch proposed.

"It won't" her redheaded spitfire adamantly protested.

"What would Giles say?" Tara asked, knowing that the former watcher was the first to admonish Willow's irresponsibility with magic, taking action as soon as her returned from England after learning that Buffy had been revived.

Unfortunately, this had the opposite of the pensive effect Tara had hoped for. "_Sekaat_" Willow uttered with contained anger. Every noise aside from the two wicca suddenly fell silent. The patrons continued to dance and talk, the band kept playing away but no sound other than each other reached the occultists ears.

Willow turned to her lover. "Are you taking his side now?" she asked, her face beaming with betrayal.

Tara rolled her eyes in complete disbelief that their conversation had taken such a childish turn. Unfortunately, she was unable to turn the course of the discussion around and it soon dissolved into the argument they had narrowly avoided at the house. Eventually, Tara just outright stated, "Willow you are using too much magic. What do you what me to do? Just sit back and keep my mouth shut?"

"Well that would be a good start" Willow shouted without raising her voice.

Back when Tara had been younger, back home in Texas, she had been a shy wreck. Her abusive family didn't help matters with all the lies about her being a demon. Her mother had been the only one who had understood her and she had died when Tara was only seventeen. But a few days before she graduated high school, she had been approached by a man who she talked too for many hours and felt closer too after that period than she felt to the rest of her entire family. In the end, he had offered to send her to collage at UC Sunnydale, telling her that she would find something in herself there. She had been so anxious escape her kin that she readily accepted and was sent to the place where she would go on to meet Willow, Buffy and the rest of the gang. Her battles alongside them had forged her into a powerful individual.

If she was still that shy wreck, Willow's scathing remark would have crippled her. But as she was at that moment, she shrugged off the sting. "If I didn't love you so damn much, I would" she rebuked. "_Takalam_" the witch shouted as she stormed off, allowing the volume of the rest of the world to return.

Tara fled down the balcony and was about to leave the club when a familiar voice taunted her from a table buried in the back corner of the building. "Once upon a time, I wondered whether it was possibly for you to get pissed off."

The Texan turned in amazement to find herself face to face with the man who had changed her life. She immediately walked over to the table and took a seat across from the dark cloaked man. "Kylar, or would you rather I called you Gaelan? That is the name you used when you slept with my mother, right?"

The Night Angel raised an eyebrow in surprise. "Well, it looks like someone has been doing their homework."

"My dad filled me in on the hazier details when he came to try to take me back to Texas with him last year" the witch explained. "Details that you left out during our last meeting."

"Would you have taken my offer if I hadn't?" Kylar countered. "Would you have come here to Sunnydale and allied with the Slayer, made a lover out of her best friend, helped save the world, and grown into the person you are right now if I hadn't?"

"Okay, fine, you had a good reason" Tara lamented. "But I really don't have time to chat right now. You see, Buffy's sister is"-

"In a forest three miles west of here being rescued from a hoard of idiot young vampires by her kin, the watcher, and the blond vampire" Kylar interrupted. Tara was unsettled at the ease that the man rattled of those facts, especially since she was fully aware of his chosen profession. He continued within a moment. "Go home; see if I'm telling the truth. All I ask is that once you have confirmed my words, return here. There is quite a bit we need to discuss."

Tara promised to return and dashed back to the Summers' house. Willow was already there when she arrived, along with Buffy, Giles, Spike, Xander, Anya, and most importantly, Dawn. Knowing that she would get the full story of events later, Tara returned to The Bronze to make good on her word.

When she arrived, Kylar hadn't moved an inch but was chugging down a bottle of beer as the party atmosphere began to die down. Tara resumed her place across from the Night Angel. "I'm here. Now let's talk."

**So sorry this chapter took so long to get out but I've been reading other work on the site and I got caught up in those stories. I promise, I'll get the next chapter out faster, but there are other stories I'm working on. Anyway, next time, Kylar and Tara have a friendly chat.**


	6. Chapter 6

Dawn of the New Night

Chapter 6

Continuing from Chapter 5

Kylar replaced his now empty bottle of alcohol on the table and ordered another round for himself and for Tara, despite the latter's protest. Before long he was downing three more bottles and showed no signs of stopping. Tara became impatient and slammed her hand down on the table, "Are you just going to drink or are you going to tell me why you're here Kylar?"

The man only smiled at Tara's anger. "Are you afraid I'll be too drunk to tell you what you want to know dear daughter?"

Tara snorted her disregard. "Please, you've been alive since, when? Two thousand years or so after the Old Ones got kicked out of this dimension. I think it's going to take a little more than some cheap beer to get you delusional."

Kylar whistled. "My my, I was right. You have been doing your homework."

Tara leaned slightly, attempting to be threatening. "Enough to know what you really are, Night Angel."

She had expected the comment to surprise the wetboy if not unnerve him but he just calmly grinned back at her and asked another question. "But do you know what you are?"

The young witch was taken aback by the counter and withdrew to her chair. She knew the answer to Kylar's inquiry and it was sometimes frightening, especially when she looked at how weak she was in comparison to Willow. How she was supposed to personify an attribute of one of the most powerful beings in all reality was a mystery and a terrible fear for her.

The Night Angel placed his bottle on the table and laid his hands down on top of the structure like a practiced businessman. His demeanor no longer resembled the mysterious drunk wise man, instead taking on an icy calm that would freeze a star. "Now the chit chat is out of the way, let's move on to the important stuff. I rarely give orders and I hate when I have to. But this is a personal favor to you."

"I doubt that" Tara muttered.

"So you would rather I just kill Willow outright?"

"What!?" Tara exclaimed, rising from her seat in a flash. "You can't."

"I won't have a choice soon enough" Kylar countered without batting an eye. "She is more powerful than any mage I have seen in the last ten thousand years, save perhaps your mother. The difference between the two is that your mother was in control of her powers, not the other way around as is the case with your girlfriend. I heard your argument with her earlier. I know that you have noticed her failings."

It was true. Tara knew that Willow's judgment was poor when it came to magic. But that was no reason to bring down the avatar of retribution on her. "She hasn't hurt anyone; you have no motive to kill her."

"This isn't about a comeback, it is about never letting her take the lead" Kylar stated bluntly. "The issue of Willow Rosenberg needs to be solved before the world is put in danger. A preemptive strike of sorts."

"If you're so hard set on protecting the world, where have you been for the six or so apocalypses in that happen here yearly?" Tara accused.

"I watch over this entire world Tara and Sunnydale is only one of half a dozen different hellmouths across this planet" Kylar countered. "I left this place to the Slayer's guardianship after I made sure she could handle the responsibility. I chose to return after I learned of her sacrifice, which has been strangely reversed." The last words were said with a knowing and perhaps scolding tone.

"Who are you to judge?" Tara countered angrily. "I found hundreds of instances of your death over the millions of years you've lived. You can do practically anything you want and never have to deal with the consequences as long as you have that ka'kari. Even die."

Kylar remained silent after her rant. She believed that he was surprised she knew about the black ka'kari. He was really just subdued that she, his favored child, had done god knows hours of research on him and yet still, like so many, was ignorant of the price he had to pay for the reconstructive aspects of his immortality.

"I have lived in this world for millions of years and have saved it almost as many times. I have fought and killed gods. If I'm scared of something, don't you think I have good reason to be scared" he said in a voice even in volume yet more deafening than the rock music of the earlier party.

To Tara's credit, she kept her face even in the face of the Night Angel's fury. Kylar continued with a barely lower voice. "The only reason that Willow doesn't already have a knife in her back is that you are one of the most powerful Faces of Mercy that I have ever seen and your attribute shows itself well. And since this matter is so personal to you, I'm delegating it to you."

A few moments of silence passed between the two magical beings. Tara eventually broke the icy air with a freezing threat. "If you lay a finger on her, I'll"-

"Be unable to do anything" Kylar interrupted. "If I set out to kill someone, you know that you can't stop me from hitting my mark." The tired man finally rose and began to set out, stopping only to whisper a final simplification to his daughter. "Save your girlfriend from herself Tara and you'll save her from me."

When she was sure he had left, Tara let the smallest of tears drop from her eyes and returned home.

Kylar arrived to an even greater surprise when he walked into his store. Standing by the counter, engaged in a friendly conversation with Miri was a teenage girl with long brown hair. Kylar couldn't keep the curiosity from his voice. "Dawn, what are you doing here?"

Dawn Summers turned around to face here teacher. "Do you know what happened tonight?"

"You got wooed by a teenage vampire and saved by your sister. I don't see how that brings you here" Kylar said.

"I should have been able to save myself" Dawn explained. "I should have been able to kick Justin's ass halfway to LA but instead I barely survived. And my kleptomania is back in full swing. Long story short, Buffy being brought back to life hasn't done a thing to help me. If anything, her being alive but ignoring me is worse than when she was dead. I need to get some purpose back into my life."

"What are you saying, exactly Dawn?" Kylar asked, hoping that he was being told what he thought he was.

"I'm saying my ten minute retirement is over. I want you to train me again."

**Hooray, Dawn's going to be a wetboy!**

**Also, due to other stories needing attention, and since I'm not sure if anyone is even reading this, if I do not receive a minimum of three reviews, this story shall be discontinued (At least is writing. I know how it goes in my head.)**


	7. Chapter 7

Dawn of the New Night

Chapter 7

Kylar couldn't say he was surprised. After all, he had been observing Buffy since her return from the grave and had noticed the severe gap in her attitude from before her death. She was actually quite pathetic to watch, so much so that The Night Angel had not felt comfortable leaving the Hellmouth in her care as he had done before. However, he had assumed he would have to manipulate the Key to get her on his side again. Dawn **wanting **to resume her training under him was a glorious surprise.

Of course, knowing that she wanted to did not mean he would allow her to. Dawn may not have known it, but she was lucky. Even with the multiple tragedies that had plagued her, she lived in an age where those not born to the giants of the social hierarchy had a chance to experience a childhood that they wished to remember. Kylar knew there were certain parts of his early years that he preferred to forget about; most of his life before his apprenticeship to Durzo in fact. Besides, although he was aware that Dawn could dust a vampire when he was about to sire her, he needed to know if she could kill something that would not fall under self-defense. And he didn't want to make her become something she could not come back from.

"Not yet" Kylar denied. Dawn's resolve wavered slightly and the smile that had accosted Miri's face a moment before fell.

"What do you mean not yet?" Dawn asked, frustration seeping into her voice. "What do I have to wait for?"

"For me to be sure you can still succeed in the work" Kylar answered. "If I teach you again, it cannot be as my student, it must be as my apprentice."

"What's the difference?" Dawn inquired indigently.

"For one, there is no backing out of being my apprentice Dawn" the wetboy master explained. "The second is that you do what I say no matter what, and that could involve you having to kill someone and not always with me by your side. Could you do that Dawn? Could you take a life, even a demon's, by being the aggressor?"

Dawn opened her mouth to answer but closed up when she realized that Kylar wouldn't let her back in without solid proof of her metal. Unfortunately, she had none.

But the Night Angel did truly want her to return. Personally he had been elated during his time teaching Dawn. She had brought a new exhilaration to training, one he had felt sparsely before save for the instruction of certain faces. He had realized that this was likely another why Durzo didn't kill him at some point during his tutelage. Funny how he was still dissecting that man even after millions of years had passed since his final death. But Kylar's mentor had not let his personal wants and desires interfere with his duty (except for that time that Roth threatened Uly but that was his only child in centuries so it was excusable to say the least.)

But he could give Dawn a chance if she really wanted to come back. "I'll make you a deal Dawn. Go home; prepare yourself for combat however you can, I suggest wearing that silver bracelet you inherited from your mother. Don't ask, it will come in handy. At some point over the next few days, I will arrange a test for you to partake in. I will not give you any sign of what this test will be or when it shall occur. All I can promise is that it will involve you having to kill. I haven't decided what that being will be. It could be human, an animal, or a demon. So prepare yourself for blood."

Dawn nodded and took that as her cue to leave. She said goodbye to Miri and thank you to Kylar before rushing of to sneak back into her room.

After she was gone, Miri asked the Night Angel, "So what's the test going to be?"

Kylar retreated to his quarters above the training room. "I'll let you know when I find out."

The Next Morning

Tara awoke as Willow ran to the bathroom to get ready for the day. She stood and stretched her arms high above her head as she yawned. At that moment she noticed a pretty pink snipping of a bush on top of Willow's pillow. Snatching the flower up, the witch brought the plant to her nose and took in its scent. The petals exerted a wonderfully sweet smell that pleased her to no end. The dash of Willow that wavered faintly didn't hurt the score either. Smiling broadly, Tara placed the cutting on the right breast of her dress and then went to the work of preparing for the day.

The day looked to be an incredible one. The sun was shining, the entire gang was safe, Willow was as gorgeous as ever and there was absolutely nothing concerning that Tara could remember.

Dawn on the other hand was going mad trying to prepare for Kylar's test, whatever it might be. The silver bracelet that she had received when her mother had died the previous year hadn't left her hand since she had returned home. Her mentor rarely gave out freebies and when he did, Dawn knew that she should pay attention. Though how the fashion accessory would assist her in combat was a mystery. In the meantime she was running through every drill and technique she could remember from her earlier tutelage in her mind, practicing them physically when she could get away from others, and repeatedly calling up her Talent so that she could use it when she needed it.

Unfortunately, until whatever beastie the Night Angel chose to pit her against showed its ugly mug, Dawn was left to live out her miserable life. She went school and prepared to be bored silly.

Then her entire math class (including herself) started performing a musical number.

That would have been weird enough except that when she entered the Magic Box after school, the rest of the gang were researching possible culprits of the sudden singing fever because everyone in the whole town were randomly bursting into song. Dawn wanted to help but Buffy, who still considered her a little kid even after everything she had been through, refused to let her touch the books and made her do her homework. So she sat at the counter of the store writing numbers into equations when an alluring looking necklace caught her eye. Unable to resist the urge, Dawn discreetly snatched the item from next to the cash register and hid it in her pocket.

The Scoobies found nothing helpful to deal with the matter until the next night. Dawn was unloading her school books onto her bed when Tara appeared in the doorway. "Hey, what do you have there?"

Dawn snorted jokingly. "Math, it seemed a lot more fun when we were singing about it."

Tara smiled at the good humor. "Giles thinks we've found the cause of the singing. A demon, a sort of lord of the dance. Willow thought we might be able to beat him if we sing off key. Willow makes everything better" she chuckled.

"Well good" Dawn said pleasantly. "I'm glad you guys made up. You're too good together to let a stupid fight break you apart."

"Fight?" Tara said, confused. "Dawn, we never had a fight."

"Oh, I guess I was wrong" Dawn apologized immediately. "I mean I've only seen you guys fight once."

But Dawn's words had sparked something in the back of Tara's mind. Horrified, she looked to her shoulder and stared at the cutting she had found under Willow's pillow. She realized what the plant was but couldn't bring herself to accept that her lover would betray her so. Convincing herself that she had to be sure, she excused herself from Dawn and dashed off to the Magic Box. Dawn, feeling rejected once more, walked over to her jewelry box, unsealed the hidden compartment where all the items she had shoplifted were stored, and put on the necklace she had taken from the Magic Box the other day. Then within two lines of a soft, self pity song, a trio of wooden like demons ran in and knocked her unconscious.

Tara had meanwhile arrived at the Magic Box. Careful to avoid being seen by Willow who was already there, the young despairing witch rushed to the far side of the store and hoped up the stairs to the upper level where Giles stored the books he preferred people didn't look at without him present, mostly because they contained dark magic and less luxurious ingredients. Opening up one with the description she was looking for, Tara felt her lungs drop the breath they held as she looked at a picture that matched the snipping she had exactly. Beside the image was the explanation, _Lethe's Bramble: Used for augmenting mind control and memory spells. _

Tara's heart broke as she belt out a sorrowful love song with the back of her mind recognized the heartfelt cords of Giles singing out an equally down song as their notes merged into a duet of unimaginable regret and betrayal as both looked longingly at Buffy and Willow at the front of the shop who were chatting away like nothing was wrong.

Suddenly, Spike burst through the front door with a man sized puppet demon as his hostage. "Looky, looky what I found" the vampire declared to the shop occupants, as Anya and Xander emerged from the back room to join the group.

"Is this the demon?" Tara asked as the group converged at the front of the store. The witch made visible attempt to avoid eye contact with her lover, a fact that did not escape Willow's notice and saddened her. She did not realize that her deception and mind wipe had been foiled.

Spike did not notice the inner conflict of the group and answered Tara's inquiry. "No, but he works for him. Says he has a message for the Slayer. Come on doll; tell them what you told me."

The puppet demon faced the group and declared, "My master has the Slayer's sister at the Bronze and as she summoned him at midnight is going to take her to the underworld to be his queen." Immediately after he finished, the minion bolted past Spike and fled from the shop.

"So Dawn's in trouble" Buffy muttered. "Must be Tuesday."

"Dawn may have had the wrong idea in summoning this demon" Anya explained, knowledgeable about those kinds of affairs due to her time as a vengeance demon. "I've seen some of these underworld child bride deals and they never end well. Okay, maybe once."

"We could use a incendiary charm" Willow suggested but was instantly shot down by Tara who refused to allow spells into the mix of the catastrophe.

"Why don't we just mount up" Xander said but Giles insisted that Buffy had to go alone.

"Bugger you" Spike said and then to Buffy continued, "Forget about him slayer, I'm with you all the way."

"I thought you wanted me to stay away from you" Buffy countered his generosity. "Isn't that what you sang?"

Spike was understandably pissed about the rejection and stormed off. Buffy, as per Giles' decree, set out to the Bronze to confront the demon, with all her allies eventually heading out to join her. But the Slayer reached the Bronze alone, smashing down the door for her opening.

On the stage sat Dawn, not bound but clearly scared, in a light blue dress while a crimson skinned cone head demon in a dark midnight suit clapped slowly for a few moments while he sat in his own seat. "I do love a good entrance" he confessed.

"How are you at death scenes?" Buffy taunted, earning a small chuckle. "You got a name?"

"I've got a hundred" he responded with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Well I've got to know what to call you if you're going to be my brother in law" Buffy informed him.

"Sweet then" the demon decided. "Call me Sweet."

"Buffy, I didn't summon him" Dawn insisted with a steel in her voice that contrasted her posture.

"Don't worry Dawn, you're not going anywhere, I am" Buffy revealed. She returned her gaze to Sweet. "Here's the deal: I can't kill you, you take me down to hell in her place."

"A valiant offer" Sweet admitted. "But what if I kill you?"

"Trust me, it won't help" Buffy answered subdued.

"That's cynical."

"That's life."

"Come now" Sweet sarcastically taunted. "Isn't life a wondrous thing?"

"You know it's not" Buffy replied and then broke into song. Over the course of the music, the rest of the Scooby Gang excluding Spike arrived and assisted in the number. But then Buffy walked onto the stage and belted out the words that she had been trying to keep from her loved ones, "_There was no pain. No fear, no doubt, until they pulled me out, from heaven."_

Xander, Anya, Tara, Giles, and Dawn all took on looks of shock, the reason for the distance Buffy kept the rest of the world at suddenly clear. Willow, the one who had been the primary advocate for returning Buffy to life, shattered. A hidden observer of the events however, merely scoffed in disgust at The Slayer.

Sweet's aura had not finished its meddling however and Buffy quickly continued the performance, using so much energy that she began to combust. She would have too, if Spike, the only person she had told of her location in the afterlife prior to the night, did not arrive at that moment to stop her dance. He quickly comforted Buffy the best he could and told her to keep living.

The moment was ruined by Sweet's slow clapping. "Well that was a show stopping number. Though not quite the fireworks I was looking for."

"Get out" Willow threatened, he face contorted in anguish.

"I smell power" Sweet observed, looking at Willow. "And something else too" he continued, sniffing the air until his gaze rested on Tara, "Mercy. Well, well, it has been quite a while since I've seen a Face. The Mrs. and I will have to be on our way then."

"I don't know how many times I have to say it, but I didn't summon you" Dawn insisted.

"You're wearing my talisman though" Sweet explained, pointing to the necklace she was wearing.

"This? I found this when I was cleaning in the Magic Box" she lied. "But I didn't summon anything."

"Well" Sweet said, clearly irritated by the unintentional deception. "Isn't that a twist?"

"If it was in the shop, then one of us probably did it" Giles realized.

Nothing happened for a few moments, but then Xander slowly raised his hand. "Does this mean I have to um, be your queen?"

"Unfortunately" Sweet moaned stepping out in front of Dawn. "I don't control these rules, I just"-

The demon talked too long because he gave Dawn time to think. She realized that if she didn't make a move at that moment, Xander would be taken to the underworld and happiness would be taken from yet another person she cared about. If she was going to have to kill as Kylar's apprentice, she might as well get started.

So as soon as Xander's hand went up, Dawn gathered up all the Talent she could and focused it into her right hand. Curling said hand into a fist, she punched through the back of Sweet's head with enough power to knock down a wall. The demon's head ended up doing a very good impression of a watermelon when it was shot by a cannon.

As soon as she finished the strike however, Dawn immediately started to fall. She had stretched her wounded conduit and as a result was losing consciousness. The last thing the girl saw, was a shadow covered man on the Bronze's upper balcony wearing a smile of blue flames.

Kylar didn't see Dawn again until late the next day. She walked into the back room where he had trained her previously and saw him standing next to the black crate he had had out the day she had left. "So did I pass?" she asked indigently.

Kylar shrugged. "Last night wasn't the test I was planning but it served the purpose just the same."

"So I'm back in?" she asked excitedly.

"You're in if you give the word" Kylar promised. When Dawn looked confused, he elaborated, "Dawn, as my apprentice you will not likely be able to just walk away like you did before and you defiantly won't be able to tell anyone about me. And you will have to kill, I can promise you. Do you truly want this? Do you believe you can succeed in this?"

"Yes, to both."

"Very well" Kylar said, tingling with rarely seen glee at how what he was about to do mirrored a pivotal encounter in his own apprenticeship. He opened the side of the dark crate and a small white snake shot out towards Dawn as she fell on her but in surprise. Still, the serpent would have bitten her if Kylar hadn't seized by the neck. "Do you know what this is?"

Dawn searched her memory for the reptile and found a match in an old book see had been looking through in the Magic Box. The snake was supposed to be one of the most lethal to ever exist, with venom that killed with a minute and had absolutely no cure, mystical or otherwise. It was also supposed to have died out a million years ago. "It's a white asp."

"No" Kylar corrected with a smile. "It's the price of failure."

"Ah" Dawn said as she sneaked a glance inside the crate that revealed a small white orb.

**So yeah, I borrowed from Brent Weeks for the last part.**

**Anyway, you gave the reviews so the story continues but please keep REVIEWING!**


	8. Chapter 8

Dawn of the New Night

Chapter 8

Dawn had been back under Kylar's wing for barely a week and already she felt that she had woken up from a nightmare. Sure everyone in her life was still falling to pieces, what with Giles abandoning Buffy by returning to England and Tara leaving Willow because of the latter excessive use of magic and a memory spell that went wrong. Of course all they did was make things worse, Buffy was flailing around her new life worse than ever except now things got really bad when she messed up and Willow hadn't slowed down her magic usage at all. But now, Dawn had a focus again, something to draw her attention away from all the tragedy.

After going through a refresher course of shadow stealth, Dawn had returned all the items that she had stolen due to her kleptomania without repercussion. She had been able to regain her proficiency in hand to hand combat almost instantly, having to concentrate far harder on her skill with weapons, especially since Kylar decided to grant her a set of tools similar to the standard kit he used on jobs: four throwing knives, two daggers, and a wetboy bracer on each arm. He had yet to grant her a sword despite the fact that she had excelled with the weapon to her mentor's satisfaction, instead insisting that she bring her mother's bracelet to training every day.

Dawn was practicing with her bracers, trying to get down the activation of each of the lethal implements they held. The bracers along her forearms, under the sleeves. When Dawn bent her wrist down, a wooden stake extended from the top of her wrist. The weapon was mostly intended for use combating vampires but since the undead were far from the only creatures she would have to kill as a wetboy, the wood was enchanted to be able to take blows from a sword like it were another steel blade. But when another blade was actually needed, Dawn call up one by bending her wrist back, triggering a collapsible sword to slide into her hand. Though these swords were capable, Dawn still preferred the feel of a full pommel, hilt and edge weapon. Honestly, she could not fathom why Kylar refused to allow her one.

Speaking of the devil, Kylar opened the training room door and straddled in with his normal absent vigor. Dawn was about to finally raise the sword issue to his full attention when he suddenly declared, "Practice is over Dawn. It's time to kill."

When she was obviously dumbstruck by the order, her master elaborated. "Do you remember that loan shark demon that attacked you and your friends when you had lost your memories? The one that Spike owes twenty Siamese cats to?"

"Teeth? Yeah, I remember him" Dawn stated venomously. Teeth had been attempting to collect on Spike's gambling debt by sending a hoard of vampires after him. If the gang had known who they were when the attack had come, the vamps would have been dust in seconds. However, due to Willow's miss fired Tabula Rusa spell, the attack had nearly succeeded. "Is he our deader?" she asked hopefully.

"Worse, he is our client" Kylar surprised her. But before she could object, her master held up a hand. "I would never take a job on someone who didn't deserve to die Dawn. To be honest, I probably would have killed the being myself in a few weeks even if nobody hired me to make him my deader."

"But we are working for Teeth" Dawn paused at.

"We are not mindless minions Dawn, we are wetboys. We choose our missions and we choose our deaders" Kylar reminded her.

Dawn relented at that assurance. With an outward breath, she asked, "So who gets to die?"

Kylar grinned at her resolve. "A black magic dealer named Rack. Mages go to him and he gives them the mystical equivalent of a drug high in exchange for a bit of their strength. He is very powerful and very dangerous. You should make piecemeal of him."

Dawn wasn't exactly convinced. She had been back in the game for barely a week and already he was sending her on a dangerous mission. "Master Kylar, apart from the fact that you are my master, and this is totally not objection just curiosity, but why would I kill Rack, even if he is a scum bag?"

"Because you're getting paid" her master informed her as if it were obvious.

"What?" Dawn exclaimed. "Since when do I get paid?"

"Dawn, as my apprentice you receive a percentage on the jobs that you make the kill on" Kylar explained. "Ten percent to be exact, you haven't gotten any money yet because you haven't gone out and made a kill yet."

"Okay" she responded, still unsure about the entire issue. "So how much will I get if I make the kill on Rack?"

"Well, let's see" Kylar said as he tapped his finger to his chin. "The contract pays five million on completion so you will receive five hundred thousand of it. I'll take the time to funnel some of it to pay off the growing number of bills stacking on top of your sister but that should still leave you with well over four hundred thousand."

Dawn had stopped listening at five hundred thousand. "Rack will be in the ground with a week" she confidently promised her master.

"Good, Rack's hide out is cloaked and always shifting its location" Kylar informed her. "Only a witch or a demon can sense the place. I'll get to work on discovering the location but keep your bracelet and the rest of your gear on you just in case you get lucky."

Dawn got up to leave for an afternoon of fun she had scheduled with Tara but paused for a moment at the door. "Master" she began. "You told me that my mother's bracelet would be helpful in combat and you haven't lied to me yet, but…"

"But?"

"Can you, I don't know, tell how it's useful?" she finished.

In response, the Night Angel held out his palm. "Hand me it" he ordered.

Dawn wasn't sure what would happen but obeyed and gave her teacher one of the few things that she had left of her mother. As soon as the jewelry entered Kylar's grip, the trinket expanded into a long silver staff. The former Key couldn't help but gap. "How?"

Kylar twirled the staff in his hands. "This is a powerful magical artifact called Iures, the Staff of Law. Or as I know it better as…" The staff morphed in Kylar's hands to become a long sword with the word MERCY inscribed near the base of the blade. "The sword Retribution."

When Dawn still did not respond to the revelation, he continued. "Iures does not increase your power at all. Instead it gives you a thousand times more control over that power. It also remembers any spell it ever sees, so since it was on your wrist when you demolished Sweet, it will allow to easily cast that spell again, though I would recommend using the artifact itself to make the enchantment more Talent efficient so you don't lose consciousness."

Dawn finally found her voice. "How do I transform it?" she inquired.

Kylar placed the sword into her hands. "Will it" he instructed. "But with a little magic edge."

So Dawn touched the weapon with the slightest touch of magic and asked it to return to being a bracelet. Sure enough, it obeyed the next moment.

Thrilled that she now had such a potent tool in her arsenal and excited by the possibility of solving some of Buffy's problems for once, Dawn thanked her master and left to meet Tara, never giving a thought to why such a powerful item had been in her mother's possession or how Kylar had known so much about it.

**Set up chapter complete.**

**Warning: updates will likely become less frequent now that school has restarted.**

**Please Review!**


	9. Chapter 9

Dawn of the New Night

Chapter 9

Buffy had always hated research. It involved using her brain to read book after book after book, the whole thing was just plain tiresome and she couldn't punch the pages to make them go away. That was probably why she had usually left the task to Giles. But Giles had left for England and he wasn't coming back any time soon so Buffy was just going to have to learn to deal. But the universe didn't help by giving her a topic as ridiculous to research as a demon that froze its victims in a solid block of ice so it could steal a diamond. Seriously, first Sweet the music meister now this.

But being the Slayer meant looking into the supernatural no matter what form it took. So Anya, Xander, and she were camped out in the Magic Box with an arsenal of ancient texts and tomes. Of course Spike's creepy call to the cemetery had been a strange interruption even if she had remained at the store. But it was almost midnight and everyone had things to do in the morning. But before Buffy could call it a night, Anya let out a squeal of joy. "I've got it! A ka'kari!"

"Sweet heart, I don't know what elaborate wedding thing that is, but I'm pretty sure we can't afford it" Xander patronized.

"No, no" Anya rejected. "A ka'kari doesn't have anything to do with the wedding, except if it was a present I suppose. But that's not the point. The ka'kari are these ancient mystical artifacts that date back to about five millennia after the Old Ones left the earth. They are six of them, blue, red, green, brown, white, and silver. Each gave its controller eternal life and youth etc. etc. but they also gave power over something. The blue controls water and such so maybe whoever did this pulled it from the air around this security guard and then froze him" she proposed cheerfully.

Buffy guessed that could be a possibility, especially since it would make more sense if it was a human who stole the diamond. Greed was always a powerful motivator. "Nice work Anya" she complimented. "We look into that tomorrow but you guys should head home for now."

"Yeah" Anya agreed. "I still have to find out where to address the Night Angel's invitation for the wedding."

"Sweetie" Xander objected. "I have issues with both those words so we are not inviting someone who has both of them in his name."

"Isn't he a myth anyway" Buffy added, remembering the stalwart disbelief of Spike kitten poker buddies.

"He is not a myth" Anya stated affirmatively. "I've seen him. He actually saved me awhile back" she reminisced gleefully like she had when Dracula had come to town.

"A guy called the Night Angel saved you, who were at the time a demon. From what?" Xander asked incredulously.

"Oh just some warlock who had kicked out his favorite wife" she explained. "But man did he have some power on his side. I figured out that he was one of those crazy take over the world kind of guys and did he have the mojo to do it. He had me pinned down and locked up as soon as I got within a foot of his mansion. I thought I was screwed; he was going to rip off my pendant and incinerate my human form. That was when he arrived."

"I didn't know what was happening at first. The vampires the guy had working for him just starting turning to dust for no reason. He had whirled around and then got a pure black sword through his gut. I didn't know what had happened until a dark figure with a face of blue flames appeared and let me out of my cage. Then he just told me, 'give my regards to D'hoffryn' and then he disappeared. Into thin air!"

"We've seen that before" Xander protested. He turned to Buffy immediately after, "Haven't we?"

But the Slayer wasn't listening. The sudden mentions of this Night Angel kept popping up. First with Spike's kitten poker buddy Clem and now Anya apparently knew the guy. Very few things had caused the warrior to raise an eyebrow since her return from the dead. But the Night Angel drew her attention for reasons she could not discern. "What happened when you went back to D'hoffryn?"

"Oh not much" Anya brushed over. "He always had a soft spot for me back then and didn't mind that the warlock had been killed before I'd wreaked vengeance upon him. Besides, he was really interested when I told him about the Night Angel. Apparently the two had a very intricate history. But I guess most parent-child relationships are."

"D'hoffryn is the Night Angel's father?" Buffy inquired.

"No" Anya corrected. "The Night Angel is D'hoffryn's father. He is the Face of Vengeance, has been for countless millennia. He just went above and beyond the call by creating you know, vengeance demons."

"What about the other Faces?" Buffy inquired. "Justice and Mercy, who are they?"

"Not a clue" Anya apologized.

"Look guys, it's late, we've all got stuff to do in the morning. How about we all take Buffy's advice and hit the hay" Xander proposed.

Both women agreed that the night was growing a bit too old. So Buffy said goodbye to the happy couple and walked down a dark alley towards her house. She did not have any fear. She was scarier than most of the things that go bump in the night and if there was something that appeared that could beat her, all the better. She would have a one way ticket back to heaven.

Spike was unfortunately not among them. Which made his stopping of her for no seeable reason even more irritating. "Get out of my way Spike" Buffy demanded, hoping he wasn't going to try to make another pointless attempt to make her love him.

"You didn't show up" the blond vampire declared, referencing his earlier summoning to the cemetery.

"Sorry, I had better things to do" she responded flippantly, knowing that he could not harm her or any other human without the government chip in his head causing him immense pain.

That is, before he slugged her across the face. As the Slayer turned in horror, Spike mockingly stated without batting an eye, "Oh, the pain."

Well as you could imagine, they started fighting as they had done back when Spike was a villain. Buffy accused Spike of having messed with his chip but was shocked when he revealed that the device was in perfect condition. But it no longer recognized Buffy as a human, so he could harm her all he liked.

Slowly, the battle moved to a crumbling old building. Buffy and Spike took turns insulting each other and their current conditions as they beat each other into walls. Buffy had the vampire pinned against a column, ready to send her fist in for another strike, but instead she kissed him.

The fight took a stranger turn after that, with punches mixed in with passionate kisses. However the violence nature of the slowly forming sex causing the surrounding structure to crumble, as both vampire and slayer fell to the basement with cloths coming off.

Unseen and unnoticed by either participant however, was a black clad figure with a face of blazing blue flames. He stood outside the building, watching the encounter, for several moments. Then, he walked away in disgust.

**Warning: My life is becoming extremely hecktic. Expect few Updates. My deepest apologies.**

**Please REVIEW.**


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